Medical Insurance FAQ’s For The Medical Traveler
Q. Does Medical Travel Insurance Cover Travel-for-Treatment?
A. No. Travel for medical treatment is NOT covered by routine medical travel insurance because it specifically excludes coverage of “pre-existing” conditions. Consequently, it will not cover ANY treatment expenses, or cost of air ambulance in the event emergency medical evacuation to home country is needed.
Tip: What you need, instead, is Medical Tourism Travel and Complications Insurance.
Q. Is there Medical Tourism Complications Insurance?
A. Yes. Rates are in direct relationship to the procedure risk and foreseeable complications cost. This type of coverage is capped at a fixed benefit amount.
Tip: For suggestions on providers who offer medical tourism complication insurance read: How to Plan a Successful Medical Tourism Trip. Note: As with all insurance products, consumers should be aware of policy terms and limits such as total amount of coverage and restrictive use of facilities and procedures that qualify for coverage.
Q. Will Medical Complications Insurance cover correcting a medical procedure if malpractice is involved?
A. No.
Obviously if you have a complication you can sue your doctor, but that does not mean that malpractice was involved. Malpractice is a liability issue and Medical Complication Insurance does not correct the surgical procedure if there has been malpractice.” Read our Legal FAQ’s Section.
Q. Does my domestic health insurance cover treatment abroad?
A. This response pertains ONLY to health insurance policies sold in the USA: Yes, provided that coverage is included in the “benefit plan”.
Q. Does my insurance policy pay for non-medical expenses?
A. Typically no, however, check the “benefit plan”.
Q. Should I purchase a travel medical assistance plan?
A. Yes, only if it will provide coverage for needs resulting from the medical tourism encounter.
For example, medical evacuation coverage. Say you become ill or have a medical complication that can’t be treated by the hospital where your procedure took place. Does your travel medical assistance plan cover the costs associated with medical evacuation and specifically any and all costs associated with patient transfer back home or to an appropriate facility that can treat you?
Tip: Says Shlomi Kariv, CEO of All Season Underwriting Insurance Agency Ltd, “The wording and terms of evacuation coverage can be tricky. Some companies advertise a full evacuation assistance package which means they will provide a friendly voice to map out the resources and assist you in accessing the resources needed for your situation– but that does not mean payment for utilization of these resources.
Medical Evacuation Policies always include the medical assistance service needed to support the patient. A Medical Evacuation Policy which actually pays for the utilization of the resources is better than a Medical Evacuation Assistance Policy.
Says Shai Gold of International-Triage, LLC, “Inexperienced staff at the admittance department of hospitals may frequently confuse this distinction and will authorize admission of a patient that has been facilitated by an “assistance company” while failing to note that the assistance service is not a payment guarantee.
The uninformed patient suddenly finds himself in a financial nightmare because most travellers do not have access to the tremendous amounts of money required for major medical service. I personally know of situations abroad where patients were literally held hostage in the hospital until the family in the U.S. made payment.”
Note: Without mentioning specific hospitals or destinations, this should serve as a warning for medical travellers to plan their medical travel meticulously and secure appropriate insurance coverage.
Q. What type of insurance can I purchase to cover treatments abroad?
A. Since insurance is sold to “healthy people”, you will probably not be able to purchase any insurance policy to cover the cost of treatments or procedures.
For more in-depth FAQ’s regarding legal and insurance topics, read the EBook “How to Plan a Successful Medical Tourism Trip”. There you can read about travel insurance from the perspective of a licensed travel agent as well as Insurance Industry experts.
